#anti-malarial drug

Left: JoAnn Trejo, PhD, is professor in the Department of Pharmacology at UC San Diego School of Medicine and assistant vice chancellor for UC San Diego Health Sciences Faculty Affairs. Right: Elizabeth Winzeler, PhD, is professor in the Division of Host Microbe Systems and Therapeutics in the Department of Pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine and adjunct professor in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UC San Diego.

Leaders in cell biology and anti-malarial drug development respectively, JoAnn Trejo and Elizabeth Winzeler were recognized by their peers with one of the highest honors in health and medicine.

Trejo is known for discovering how cellular responses are regulated by molecules known as G protein-coupled receptors, particularly in the context of vascular inflammation and cancer. Her findings have advanced the fundamental knowledge of cell biology and helped identify new targets for drug development. Trejo’s research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including a recent NIH R35 Outstanding Investigator Award.

Winzeler is known for her early contribution to the field of functional genomics, where she worked primarily in the model yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Concerned about global health disparities and the alarming rise in the number of worldwide malaria cases in the early 2000s, she shifted her research focus to malaria, beginning with functional genomics and then moving to drug discovery.

“Two UC San Diego Scientists Elected to National Academy of Medicine”